The so-called "Valley of the Headless" is located in the basin of the Canadian river South Nahanni. Many daredevils remained in it forever, their remains without heads were later found by search groups. But there are more dangerous places on this river …
The tragedy of the five gold diggers
In October 1959, five gold prospectors decided to go to the Sat Nahanni basin to seek their fortune. They hired a plane, which took them to the selected place along with the cargo. The gold detectors planned to study the rock outcrops for several weeks, identify and stake out promising areas and return back on the same plane. However, the plane did not arrive on the appointed day. They found themselves alone in the middle of a virgin forest, without food, without equipment on the eve of the approaching winter.
In May 1960, the pilot of one of the aircraft flying over the river noticed an SOS signal trampled in the snow! A rescue expedition that arrived by helicopter found two unfortunate frostbitten people who miraculously survived a difficult winter. Three of their comrades were killed: two decided to walk to a village lying 200 miles away, went on a hike and disappeared, one, unable to withstand the hardships of wintering, committed suicide.
The pilot, who was supposed to take out the gold prospectors under the contract, swore in court that he had repeatedly flown to the site, but did not see either people or the landing strip prepared by them. Of course, no one believed him.
But maybe he wasn't lying?
Promotional video:
The missing producer
In 1961, producer Blake Mackenzie decided to make a documentary about the tragedy of the five gold miners. A film crew flew to the place of the tragic events, and a base camp was set up on the shore of the lake. On January 5, 1962, Mackenzie flew to Smith River in a chartered Cessna plane, where he purchased several boxes of food for the expedition. The loaded plane barely pulled away from the runway. However, he never arrived at the camp.
The military and rescuers were looking for the missing "Cessna" for 40 days. We flew along the proposed route several times, carefully looking for the crashed plane. But "Cessna" and Mackenzie sank into the water.
The plane was found in August 8 miles from the camp in a place over which it was repeatedly flown and which seemed to have been studied down to a millimeter. Found Camp Mackenzie and his diary. A very strange diary.
Blake Mackenzie's Diary
Blake wrote that when approaching the camp, he fell into a cloud of dense fog. Emerging from it, the pilot saw the slope of the mountain right in front of him, pulled the control stick towards himself, but the loaded plane did not have time to gain altitude. Blake survived, escaped with bruises. At first, the situation did not look disastrous: food was abundant, he had a gun and gasoline, his radio was intact, the camp was only a few miles away.
Snow lay around, reaching to the waist. Every day Mackenzie trampled the path, but it was constantly falling asleep in continuous snow.
What snow? At that time, the weather was clear over the scene of the tragedy, the pilots flew every day, the visibility was, as the pilots say, "a million in a million."
Mackenzie constantly called the rescuers on the radio, but never received an answer, moreover, the broadcast was pristine, only the crackle of interference broke the silence. A few days later, clear weather set in Blake's world, he began to burn a fire - from sunrise to sunset, a column of black smoke rose into the sky.
However, no one in the camp, just a few miles from the crash site, saw the plume of smoke. The pilots who were looking for Mackenzie also saw no smoke.
Mackenzie wrote that he constantly hears the hum of planes, they fly literally over him "the hum is like at the airport", he constantly fires signal flares and wonders why the pilots do not respond to his signals for help.
The last entry was dated February 20th. Blake wrote that his legs were frostbitten and he saw no choice but to stay put and wait for help.
The police searched the entire area around the camp within a radius of several kilometers, although with his frostbitten feet, Mackenzie could not leave the camp further than several tens of meters. However, the remains of the producer have not been found. An ax and a gun were also missing.
Most likely, Blake went to firewood, taking with him, just in case, a gun. When Blake's world was reunited with ours, the unfortunate man was left on the other side. It is difficult to imagine his horror when, upon returning, he did not find either the crashed plane or his camp. He had no chance of survival.
Legends of the "tropical valley"
Blake Mackenzie wasn't the only one with whom the Nahanni neighborhood played such a joke. Among the gold prospectors there are stories about the "tropical valley" - even in 50-degree frosts, the sun shines there, warmth and trees turn green.
In 1931, a certain Henry Norman visited it. According to his stories, the valley was three-quarters miles long, and hot springs gushed from the ground. In the 45-degree frost, Henry and his companions bathed, basked in the sun. To prove his story, Norman brought a green branch from the valley.
Frank Graves spoke on the contrary about the "frozen valley". In hot summer, it is covered with snow, in the center of it lies a frozen lake.
Several groups of enthusiasts tried to find their way to the "tropical valley" and "frozen", but each time they came to the indicated place, they found neither a tropical paradise in the middle of winter, nor a kingdom of cold in hot summer.
Even the place on the map, who visited the "enchanted valley", is shown different every time. Apparently the gates to another world can open anywhere. But it will still be somewhere in the South Nahanni River Basin.
Author Klim Podkova